Black Saturday bushfires moved Australians to unprecedented
levels of generosity and support. In early 2011 the recovery is two
years underway, with under half of residential properties rebuilt.
Ongoing community support is vital.

Communities impacted by the bushfire have deep environmental
values - this is why they chose to live in a marvelous natural
setting. Green Cross is supporting bushfire affected communities to
reflect these values by making rebuilding and community recovery
choices that embrace resilience and sustainability.

On Friday 23rd April, 2010, Victorian Premier John Brumby and
Environment Minister Gavin Jennings announced that they shared our
sustainable futures vision for communities affected by Black
Saturday. Green Cross Australia is a proud recipient of a $177,000
grant from the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund to
build a comprehensive sustainable recovery web portal to support
bushfire affected communities

We look forward to working with the Ballieu Government to
progress the exciting green recovery underway across bushfire
affected communities.

The core green building tool in www.builditbackgreen.org
is an interactive online tour of a specially designed bushfire
resilient home. Victorians can roam through gardens, kitchens,
bathrooms and lounge rooms to access practical information, vendor
lists, Victorian and Federal Government sustainability websites and
comprehensive rebates and green finance options with a click of the
finger. Explore the interactive bushfire resilient
green home.

Support from Green Building Leaders

Green Building Council of Australia is an anchor partner in this
project and we look forward to working with GBCA to launch the
website and engage with green Victorian architects, builders and
corporate volunteers over 2011 and 2012 as the bushfire recovery
progresses. We are particularly interested in stimulating the
market for modular, affordable bushfire homes that integrate
resilience and sustainability for the large peri-urban low income
rental market that is struggling to find a home in the
recovery.

Romilly Madew CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia
says: "GBCA will target all its members and affiliated industries
to assist in the volunteer program and to catalyse innovative
solutions to affordable bushfire eco-resilience. The aim of this
program is to provide individuals and companies the opportunity to
assist on the ground, within the bushfire regions."

BIBG partners hope to be a source of green jobs, advice,
leadership, practical tools and capacity to assist Victorian
communities to transition and emerge as the cohesive, healthy,
thriving and, now resilient, communities they once were. It is our
aim that a minimum of 400 households will be supported to increase
their eco-resilience with innovative hazard reducing materials,
technologies and practices, while reducing their greenhouse
emissions by 10 tonnes per annum.

We also believe that the BIBG initiative will give Black
Saturday affected communities an opportunity to inspire and
galvanise the rest of Victoria.

Media out of the BIBG New Orleans project has made
our efforts there visible right across the US, and through the BIBG
website, information and tools will be available for all Victorians
who are inspired to renovate and build new homes using cutting edge
green building approaches.

"After Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans exactly
four years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005, the city emerged as an
inadvertent symbol of global warming, the first American victim of
climate change. More than 200,000 homes were destroyed during the
Category 5 hurricane.

But in the years since, the Crescent City has quietly
embraced a new and unexpected role as a laboratory for green
building.Sustainable-development groups like the
international nonprofit Global Green [Green Cross Australia's US
affiliate] as well as earth-friendly celebrities like Brad Pitt
descended on New Orleans, determined not just to build the city
back but to build it back green.

"It's going to come back," says Matt Petersen, the
president of Global Green USA. "But we want to build it better than
it was before."